'John McCarthy is a good listener, recording with sympathy and humour personal stories as well as Irish history, from Celtic times until today. His quest to understand troubled, romantic Ireland and his own relationship with his family has resulted in a beguiling book' About 'A Ghost Upon Your Path' taken from - The Sunday Times

The Book - Some Other Rainbow

Since his release from captivity John McCarthy has written four books.

Some Other Rainbow

Some other Rainbow was the the first. It was written with his friend Jill Morrell and details the hostage years through his perspective and through the eyes of his loves ones at home. "An astonishing achievement: while often wildly funny, it is also humbling, draining, exhausting and ultimately exhilarating to read'

Island Race is an account of the circumnavigation of Britain with his good friend Sandi Toksvig. The pair detail their travels, the people they met and sights in an enlightening humourous and entertaining blend.

Between Extremes

"One of the funniest and most moving testaments to friendship that one is likely to read.' Sunday Times

From a friendship born out of adversity comes an extraordinary story by two extraordinary men. Five years after their release, Brian and John chose to travel together to see how the reality of Chile matched their imagination and to revisit their past experiences. Between Extremes is the story of that journey, which once more found them far from home, in an unfamiliar landscape, but which for the first time allowed them to live by their own rules.

We all have a need to belong, to have a place and people we feel tied to -our house, our hometown, our nation. Ever since he first visited Ireland with his family twenty years ago, John McCarthy has felt a strong affinity with its people and landscape. Yet in spite of his Irish name, he never thought of himself as Irish. This book is an account of his experiences walking in the footsteps of his ancestors in Kerry and is a perceptive and delicate analysis of the Irish situation. It is a delightful evocation of the open-hearted locals of his adopted village.